In many industrial operations, including oil and gas exploration and production, large and noisy equipment is used. In many instances, it is necessary to protect personnel working in nearby areas, or nearby members of the public, from the noise generated from such equipment, for safety or other reasons.
Where the noise generating equipment is intended for substantially permanent installation, permanent noise blocking walls, such as cinder block walls, may be permanently installed. For other applications, however, the noise generating equipment may be installed on a more temporary basis, such as is common in oil and gas exploration applications. In such applications, it is desirable to employ a noise control wall which can be removed or moved when the need for noise control is no longer present at that location, but which is still very durable in a harsh industrial or outdoor environment.
In prior temporary noise control walls, a sound absorbing blanket may be used as the wall. However, a conventional sound absorbing blanket wall is relatively weak as compared to permanent noise blocking walls such as cinder block walls. Furthermore, in the outdoor environments that are common for many applications, including oil and gas exploration and production, there can be severe wind loads imposed on noise control walls. The force of a wind load on a wall is generally a function of the total area of the wall. Although permanent noise blocking walls such as cinder block walls can be readily designed to survive relatively high wind loads, a conventional sound absorbing blanket wall of the same size, in terms of total area, as a cinder block wall, though exposed to the same wind load, can be destroyed or damaged by high winds.
Furthermore, in oil and gas operations, where either a conventional sound absorbing blanket or permanent noise blocking wall is used, the blanket or wall tends to impede free flow of air through the interior space formed by the blanket or wall. Because it is common for noxious, poisonous or flammable gases to be released in oil and gas operations, the lack of free circulation of outside air though the interior space can pose a safety hazard.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a noise control wall that is effective for controlling noise, can be installed on a temporary basis, if desired, can be readily transported, is durable and less prone to damage in windy environments, and facilitates free flow of air through the interior space within the wall to minimize the buildup of noxious, poisonous or flammable gases.